Tele-Community Development

Information society considerations need to be included as a greater part of current and future urban to rural community and regional planning and development initiatives.

Context:

The tele-mediation of society will dramatically change architectural, spatial, and urban-rural relationships; and may well increase and accelerate the disparities, complexities and noise that is already having significant negative impact on urban life.
If today's Information Revolution is as great a force for social transformation as forecast, than communities must embrace telecommunications education, planning and implementation with no less commitment than is being given to the issues of land use, transportation, energy, building and other basic community planning and development matters.
Few of us can yet envision the means by which the Internet, web pages, teleconferencing and other telecommunications media might practically make a difference for the present and future of our cities and towns. Most of our civic leaders are having to make decisions in this regard, based on barely being able to keep up with rapid technological change and ever limited financial resources. Planners and designers know that citizen participation is vital, but rarely inclusive. Long-term planning and decisionmaking is nearly impossible. What are the new opportunities for our currently increasing elderly populations, and what is their relevance for our children and their children

Discussion:

The following (incomplete) outline is intended as the basis for thought, discussion and implementation in the development of Tele-Communities.